UAE school trips: Learning benefits, high costs debated
In the period when schools are just about to go for the half term break, many institutions make a lot of arrangements for trips. This is common with different private schools, which organize such events to provide more practical aspects of what the children learn in class.
Here, a section of the parents sees them as unnecessary and expense, while another section appreciates them as acceptable costs when counted against the benefits such as education, cultural exchange and exposure, and working as a group.
Is it a prestige activity for institutions?
A varied group of parents to examine whether an attempt at engagement by going to a particular place or a particular activity does indeed engage them into the culture of the country or is more of “prestige activities” for the schools to level out plainness.
According to Shreya Charkaraborty, mother of a Year 4 child, “My son is learning Spanish in school, and they inform us that there is a Spanish breakfast event at a mall in Dubai coming up with a participation fee of Dh92 for parents. This event is said to seek educational enhancement of its participants and at the same time provides an enjoyable experience to the students within a culinary context.”
Usually, “All his friends would be attending,” my son said, and it’s said to be a time for them to expose themselves to the language as well as the culture of what they are learning. While this sounds compelling, I must admit that it is a bit too much and it is only window dressing,” the parent said.
She added: “Again next year, the school seeks to embark students on another field trip to Switzerland, which will surely be quite costly. While going on this faraway excursion is voluntary, my kid has already intrigued me about it. I am aware that schools do offer such trips and my concern is how much can a child learn about the culture of a place too by simply visiting there.”
Is 13K worth a seemingly transformative experience?
In the same context, heads of departments reiterated that they always choose the field trip locations according to the targets of the curriculum and the expected outcomes of the students.
Yes; that is correct. Colin Gerrie of Uptown International School said: “Field trips, be they city wise or overseas, are constant features we create to help improve the learning of our students. But, we still hold on to the fact that there are real costs to these types of activities, and therefore we only include such trips if the prospective learning is worth the expenses.
The idea is to ensure that each student gets the right and appropriate enhancement opportunity that is educational without placing pressure on the parents. This will allow for all education ably and effectively all trips to educational focuses with regards to learning outcomes to be evenly spread throughout the year.
He described how all school trips are finalized and documented as a report at the end of each school calendar.
“Considering the specific objectives for a particular trip and how well these goals were met in order to prepare for the next class outing enhances progression and impacts the learning. These are often worked to an extreme and helpfully neural nutation assisted with strategic messaging around the importance of delivering high quality education and social experience,” stated Gerrie.
Principals also reiterated that they avoid choosing prestige trips
A trip however should not be dictated by the level of the destination, the type of the accommodation as well. More so, only one way are trips viewed as a benefit for children, that is, fulfilling ‘curricular goals.’
For instance, excursions and field trips are increasingly viewed not only as a useful means of reinforcing the material learned in class or a way to enhance the socio-emotional development of children but also as an approach furthering holistic objectives within the students,’ says Simon Herbert, head of School/CEO at GEMS International School- Al Khail.
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